Mercedes' Mind Mirror

There stands the lonely house. It is a beautiful thing with its ivory walls and polished doors and windows.It gleams pale gold in the afternoons. But the wrought iron gate is always shut.No one comes in or goes out. The windows are never opened. It stands all in glory like a cursed jewel no one will claim But there lives a strange family in this house. They say they are strange creatures. They are never heard speaking except for low moans and some kind of hissing. They have red eyes and their bodies are grey and have bony red feet. If you ask anyone they have never seen them. Then one day I saw them proud pigeons strutting about under the eaves. Few years back when my grandmother died, our ancestral home was abandoned. It was like a mansion amidst a clump of trees like one of those witch castles in old stories. My grandmother wasn't alone all those years. She had her trees and birds and snakes and all those tiny creatures to keep her company. They seem to know her only too well...

When the cab pulled to a stop at a ‘straat’ full of tall houses I felt the first tickles of excitement racing through every nerve. As we hauled out the bags from behind I heard a cry of joy. I turned around to see Mummy and Pappy with Ivo, still handsome though now his hair was grey as ash and his skin perhaps a little less taut but his perfect Aryan features remained just as I’d remember them from his old photographs. Then came Ilse, but she was not at all what I’d seen from the photos Pappy brought a few years back when he had revisited Belgium. She was supposed to be pretty but plump with greyish straight hair tied in a bun at the back and wearing huge earrings. Instead out stepped an Ilse dressed in a turquoise dress, prettier with shorter flaming red hair that curled at the end, and plumper than ever. There was someone else too, someone only Pappy had seen on his last visit. But Marnix had grown taller than Pappy had seen him last. Marnix is Satya’s little brother though he was ha...